Strange Days in a New Home
by The Pixie
Summary: Five friends get sucked into the past. Into the world of king Arthur. Several have dark and broken pasts but they share a bond as strong as any sisters. Can the knights keep themselves from falling for these strange beauties? Can they help those that are broken to heal? Will the girls choose to go home? to stay? sorry I suck at summaries. FYI all knights live bit of a MS...I think.
1. Chapter 1

***Author's Note*: I own nothing from King Arthur except my characters Tegan, Sapphire, Diana, Iona and Niamh (for pronunciation click on the link below it's where i found most of the names.) Reviews and grammar fanatics (I don't like the term grammar nazi, I feel it's a little harsh) are welcome, I know my grammar is sometimes horrible. I make no guarantee's that I will correct it in a timely fashion though. :P Now onto the story.  
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**Here's the link I promised you. Enjoy.**

** irish-girl-names**

Chapter One. Tegan P.O.V.

"Tegan…Tegan…TEGAN!" came a sing-song voice then a yell right before a body banged open the door and jumped onto the petite red head hiding under the covers of her small dorm room bed. The girl groaned under the covers at her roommate and best friend.

"Iona…. let me sleep."

Tegan rolled over and away from her peppy friend and tried to hide further under the covers. The little blonde pulled the blankets away and glared at Tegan.

"You promised you would come party with us tonight, there's a new club that just opened up and the other girls are dying to go and we want you with us tonight, you've bailed on us every other night so you are coming, now GET UP!"

Tegan peaked her head out at the blonde as she crossed her arms and stood over her friends' bed until Tegan finally gave in.

"Fine, I'm up, but you know I have nothing to wear Pax, you know I'm not much of a partier."

"Not to worry hun Fire, Di, Tempest and I have got you covered." Iona stated as a bright smile lit up her face.

Tegan finally rolled all the way over and sat up in her bed, just in time for Iona to smack her in the face with a blue crop top that she had thrown over her shoulder. Iona may not be the most intimidating girl given her stature and thin dancer's build, but her aim was something you did not want to tangle with. Tegan suppressed a giggle as she remembered the rubber band and pen crossbow-shooting contest Pax had gotten into with a classmate not so very long ago, and the surprised and impressed looks when the tiny girl had managed to nail her final target. A bee that was flying around the classroom. She had nailed it in one shot without even trying.

"Wear that" Iona said, pointing to the royal blue top she had just flung at Tegan, "show off that sexy toned stomach of yours hun," she giggled "the rest of us are, now where is that black skirt with the slit running up to your thigh? The one you wore last week?" Iona asked over her shoulder as she turned back around to face Tegan's closet and began rummaging through the pile of clothes that had accumulated at the base of her closet floor.

Tegan stood and held up the blue top looking in the mirror at her messy bed head hair and her rumpled blue pajamas pants. She wasn't entirely sure about showing off her recently toned muscles, she was still largely uncomfortable with her body, seeing herself as still the mildly chubby girl who couldn't run a mile in under 15 minutes. She sighed as she held up the top again, she had worked hard to change her body, to look better, feel better and be healthy again. This was the best she had ever looked in her life, better than even when she was still considered a princess and had a daily personal trainer, and her newfound friends that she had made in her three years of college had been with her every step of the way. It was a much more satisfying feeling, working to improve herself because she wanted to, not because she was forced to by her former family. Tegan dropped the top on the bed, grabbed a towel off the hook and padded into the bathroom for a shower, leaving Iona to search through the multitude of clothes scattered about the room.

Ten minutes later Tegan emerged from the shower with a fluffy towel wrapped around her body and another wrapped around her hair. Iona was now rummaging through the bin of shoes Tegan had usually hidden under her bed, searching for the final piece to the outfit she had laid out for Tegan. She had found the black floor length skirt with the slit running up the left side, stopping about mid-thigh. It was placed on the bed next to the crop top that Tegan had set down minutes before, next to the hair dryer and Tegan's make-up. Tegan shook her head and grinned, her friend was always ever eager and bubbly and in that enthusiasm she frequently neglected to recognize personal space and boundaries, she always meant well though.

Tegan stepped over to the dresser and pulled out her favorite black push-up bra that she had just gotten from Victoria's Secret, and the matching panties. Weird as it may be, but Tegan was proud of herself when she made the purchase…it was the first pair of lingerie or non-Target brand underwear that she had been able to afford and bought with the money she had earned on her own. She had never needed to hold a job before she cut herself from her family; they had given her everything and treated her like a princess, as she was only girl in the family. That was all gone now though.

She just pulled on her bra and panties and skirt on when she heard Iona's triumphant cry from the floor across the room. Iona held her hands above her head smiling in satisfaction at having successfully found the pair of strappy sling back heels she wanted Tegan to wear. The same heels that all the girls had a pair of in different colors that they all lovingly referred to as their "stripper" heels, Tegan's were black. She smiled as the memory flashed through her mind of when all five friends had all gone shopping and decided on impulse that they should all get the same thing. It was a little childish in hindsight but they all had wanted something physical to represent their growing bonds of friendship. They were all wearing the heels tonight it seemed as Tegan took in Iona's appearance and noticed that she was already wearing her bright red ones.

'Why am I not surprised?' Tegan thought as she eyed her blonde friend and rolled her eyes when Iona began her attempt at a glare saying "Don't even think about not wearing them Tegan, Di, Fire, Tempy and I are all wearing ours so you have no choice." The tiny blonde huffed and crossed her arms still trying to glare at Tegan.

Tegan tried and failed to hide her laughter at Iona's attempt to intimidate her, 'oh if only you knew Pax, than you wouldn't try to intimidate me' Tegan thought. 'If only you knew the things I've seen, learned and done…if only.'

Tegan shook her head, and laughed at Iona's glaring, ridding herself of the dark thoughts that were entering her mind and saying "Pax you shouldn't glare, it doesn't suit your pretty face."

Iona sighed and dropped her arms, letting her head fall to stare at the floor. "Nothing ever scares or intimidates you does it?" She asked looking back up into Tegan's eyes. Tegan knew what she was looking for, but Tegan couldn't show her, she couldn't show anyone, yes they were friends but Tegan couldn't let anyone past those defenses.

Tegan knew that Pax was looking for any hint, any slight indication of fear, but all Tegan could do was mask her face, shake her head no and smile at the girl who tried so hard to prove she was just as tough as the other girls when really she was just a sweetheart and the best of them all. It was Iona who had brought the reclusive Tegan into their now very closely-knit group. They were all friends, more like sisters creating their own new little family, but Tegan still was a little distant from the others, more of an outcast. The black cat of their family still loved but doesn't quite fit in totally.

It was because of Tegan's past. She had been terrified to make friends; terrified that her blood family would find her and then take any friends she made and hurt them to get revenge on her for turning most of her family in to the FBI.

She had been closed off, she refused to accept or be accepted by anyone, out of fear that they would get hurt because of her. But Iona wouldn't quit and eventually the girl had gotten Tegan to open up somewhat and, after resolving the disputes between Tegan and Niamh, Tegan had been fully enveloped into the group. Now they knew almost everything about Tegan, except for some of her darkest secrets that she told no one for fear they would start to see her as a monster of a person, but the other girls knew the rest of her story and they accepted her for it, even the darkness that she had revealed. Even Niamh understood Tegan's reasons for betraying her family when she heard what Tegan had been subjected to.

The two mob princesses had become friends with each other because of Iona who, though loving, had forced them to hear each other out and not alert Tegan's East Coast family of her whereabouts until Niamh knew why Tegan had done what she did. Tegan's handler had been pissed when he found out that Iona and eventually the rest of the girls had found out her real name and history. He would be so pissed when she gave him the slip tonight so she could sneak out with her friends instead of going to their weekly meeting. Avoiding Jonathan was something she had gotten frustratingly (according to Jonathan) good at.

Tegan was a part of the Witness Protection Program now, has been since she was 18 when she turn against her family and testified against most of them. It was because of her that her grandfather, her father, her aunt, two of her cousins, a multitude of other "cousins" and her two older brothers were now in jail. Her two younger brothers had gotten off with only a 6-month mandatory house arrest sentence on account of the fact that they were still minors. Tegan sighed; they probably hated her too, though they had never been as big of a threat as her two older brothers.

Her family was the Irish mob gang of the East Coast. They ran Boston and Philadelphia, taking over after the Italians moved up to New Jersey and New York. Her family was not nearly as infamous or well known, after all The Godfather, and the more recent The Family, were about the Italians in New York, not as well known but twice as ruthless and just as resourceful.

Each mob, gang, mafia, whatever they decide to call themselves, has a particular specialty though all the families run their towns or districts in largely the same way. The Italians in New York and New Jersey are specialists at infiltrating government positions and paying off the police force. The Irish out of Chicago were con artists primarily, which is part of why they were so dangerous for businesses in particular. The Russians on the West Coast…well no one really knew exactly what their specialty was, they drabbled in a little bit of everything. But all of the families knew of each other, many in fact contracted with each other for the use of a certain skill set by either the family in general or a particular member of the family.

Tegan's branch of the Irish family, in particular, they were known as the Torturers. That was their specialty. Most of their work was contracted by the Italian families that either wanted in or were in the political realm of the city. Her family, as they liked to put it, obtained information for them.

When Tegan had turned 10 her father, grandfather, mother and uncles had started to teach her the family business. Their art. How to hurt someone without ever laying a finger on them. And Tegan had learned, she had been too terrified by this new part of her family that she had never known before not to learn. So she detached herself from it and became the best torturers of her generation in her family. She had stopped caring. She never grew to like it as so many of her family members did, but she lost the ability to care about the poor souls she had to inflict the pain and suffering on. It was her only defense mechanism, otherwise she would have collapsed from the weight of the knowledge of what she had been forced to learn and forced to practice. She hated her families "art" and soon began to hate them and herself.

Tegan had never told her friends this part of her history. She was too afraid that they wouldn't understand. That they wouldn't be able to see that it was the only way she could protect her mental sanity. She didn't want to hurt them with the knowledge that she was in fact a horrible human being because, after awhile, she couldn't make herself care.

Her parents had been proud of her when they saw how ruthless she had become; they called her their little Irish Princess prodigy. Tegan's father had been so proud of her, proud to the point that her older brothers had become increasingly jealous. When she was still young and just beginning to be the subject of their father's praise, they did not bother her. She only saw them as her brothers, not as the jealous potential killers they were slowing becoming. As the oldest her brother Keegan stood to inherit everything from their father when he retired, Keegan would have all the power of the family and their "kingdom" as she had once called it, at his fingertips. Her other older brother Aidan was betrothed to the daughter of the head of the family in Boston as he had no sons and after many successful contracts between the two families had grown to like Aidan. Her two younger brothers had just begun to learn the family business when she turned against them and went to the FBI.

It started when she was promised to at the age of 16 to the heir of one of the Italian families with which her family had worked closely for some time. She had never met the boy, but he was 20, almost a full four years older than she was. When they first met, two years later just before she turned 18, her family had dressed her up and forced her at the end of the night into his bed.

Tegan still shudders at the memories from that night a little over three years ago. How she had begged, almost on her knees, for her family not to make her do this, how she did not want this drunken Italian to take her in his bed, how she had only just met him, how she did not love him could not ever love him or marry him. Tegan begged her mother who just looked away and refused to see her daughter's tears and hear her plights, knowing that it must happen eventually, just as it happened to her. Her mother could not help her, could not even look at her, neither could her father. The union of the two families that her marriage would bring and the power it would bring with it, if she pleased the Italian princeling, was too important if her family was to maintain their prestige and control over the city.

She had screamed at them then, when her brothers began to force her into the room. Tegan begged her older brothers to help her, but their jealousy had made them hate her and it was Keegan and Aidan who locked the chains on her wrists, chaining her to the bed so she couldn't fight back. It was then that Tegan saw the depth of their hatred for their prodigy princess little sister. It was then that they showed her the beaten, bloody and broken body of her best friend, Sean Murphy, a boy that they knew she had feelings for. It was after that, that the Italian princeling came into the bedroom and she had no means of fighting back or of escape.

The next morning, after she had rubbed her wrists raw and had torn open the skin from forcing her wrists and hands through the manacles, she escaped. It had taken her almost all night after the princeling left, but, with her wrists bleeding, her dress torn and rumpled and blood on her thighs, she ran to the FBI building in the center of town and sealed her fate with her newly forged hate for her family and what they had forced her to do.

Tegan shuddered at the memory as she was brought back to reality by the snapping of Iona's fingers in her face.

"Hello? Tegan? Anybody home?" Iona began waving her hand in front of Tegan's face.

"Lila Tegan O'Rour…" Tegan slapped her hand over Iona's mouth with lightning speed before she could finish and glared hard at the little blonde. A glare that could actually make grown men cower in fear.

"Shh! Pax" Tegan took a deep calming breath and removed her hand from her best friend's mouth before continuing "You can't say that name. Lila Tegan O'Rourke is dead, there is only Tegan Rose Smith, born and bred in Boise, Idaho with no idea of who the families O'Rourke and Bertolini are. No idea that the mob and the mafia still exist. Got it?" When Iona nodded her head Tegan released her hold on her friend and stopped glaring.

"Pax I'm sorry but I can't afford any slips, the entirety of the Irish and Italian families are out to get Lila remember? If any of them find her, she's a dead woman."

Tegan looked at her friend straight in the eyes and allowed Pax to see a small glimmer of the fear she felt every day since she had walked out of that house and into the FBI. Iona nodded her head again in understanding and as an apology for her slip of the tongue. She grabbed Tegan, who was now fully dressed and ready to party, with one hand and Tegan's violin case with another, and with a smile the two girls left the room and met up with their three other friends, completing the group, and set out to conquer the night completely unaware that they would never set foot in their dorm room again.

***Author's Note*: I know it's a lot of background in these first few chapters but I promise it will make more sense later on. I want you all to know the main characters' histories it will make much more sense with later events in the story. Also the knights and Arthur will make an appearance soon, these first few chapters were already long enough without trying to get to that just yet. Also in case anyone had trouble figuring it out all the girls except for Tegan have nicknames. Tempy is short for Tempest I DID NOT take that from Bones I promise. (her nickname was going to be Storm but I thought that was too weird what with the X-Men character so I went with tempest cuz she has a major temper. Thanks for reading :) I hope you all enjoyed! Sorry for any annoying bad grammar mistakes or typos! Please keep reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

***Author's Note* Once again I don't own any King Arthur characters just the characters I made up. Please keep reading and reviewing! Here's chapter 2!**

Chapter Two. Sapphire P.O.V.

Sapphire grinned at her four best friends, who are really more of her family. She smiled over at Diana, the first friend she had made at college. Diana, Niamh, Iona and Tegan. Her best friends who were more like her sisters, the only people that hadn't judged her or looked down on her immediately after finding out that she was an orphan and in the opinion of some, a "charity" case.

Sapphire and Diana had become friends their first week freshman year when Diana had saved Sapphire's skinny little loud mouth ass from a fight the small gymnast could not win if it became anything other than verbal. Diana had knocked the oversized bitch out in two hits, and had taken out the chick's two guy friends that were next to her in four hits each. She is a kickass kick boxer with reflexes better than a cats'.

After that night the two had become best friends and few months later when Sapphire's dorm-mate decided to transfer schools they met Niamh and the three bonded quickly.

A full year later Naimh stumbled across Iona and Tegan, who were slowly forming a friendship as dorm-mates, and pulled Iona into the group. Iona in turn pulled Tegan in.

Tegan had been quiet and reclusive to begin with but she and Iona were assigned as roommates sophomore year and Iona, stubborn yet loving as she is, had refused to give up on Tegan. She had eventually broken through Tegan's defenses when she found a picture of Lila Tegan O'Rourke from Philadelphia and confronted Tegan about it because of the similarities between the girl in the picture and Tegan. After Tegan's past was uncovered, animosity between Niamh and Tegan sprang up like a wildfire. Sapphire, along with Diana, had looked on in confusion at the sudden anger Niamh seemed to have toward Tegan while Iona tried to keep the peace and protect both friends, earning her the nickname Pax.

One night half way through the spring semester Sapphire, Diana and Iona had staged an intervention to get the two to resolve their differences. It was then that they all learned the truth about Tegan's past as she broke down completely and told them everything. All she had wanted was friends who wouldn't judge her or her past, but that, as an ex mob princess she was afraid of hurting anyone with her stories and the possibility that her family would find her. Turned out that Niamh too was an Irish mob princess from the gang in Chicago who's cousin was betrothed to Tegan's little brother, Liam, when they came of age. Needless to say this came as a bit of a shock to Sapphire who had started to think of these girls as a part of the family that she had never had growing up.

Tegan had told Sapphire and the others everything; why she had turned on her family, why the Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago Irish mob families now had a price on her head and how she had one of the most infamous Italian families of New York after her as well.

At hearing all of the horrible things that Tegan's "family" had put her through Sapphire's glare at Niamh had increased in intensity, and using that quick spark temper of hers that had earned her the nickname from Iona of Fire, told the Irish girl that she had better not even think of contacting her family because Tegan was part of Sapphire's family now, being just as much of an orphan now as Sapphire had always been.

As it turned out though, Sapphire's glare and her temper were unwarranted and instead of being met with Niamh's usually just as stormy temper, one that had given her the nickname Tempest, Niamh had knelt down right then and there. After yelling at Sapphire for yelling at her first, and swore to Tegan that she would never tell a soul and bound the secret, along with the rest of the girls using an ancient blood oath.

All the girls swore with a few drops of their blood on their lives that they would never reveal Tegan's secret or her past without Tegan's permission first.

'This is when we really became sisters, really became a family' Sapphire thought as she smiled at the memory, grim though it was, yet happy because she believed in that oath. Believed in its power to officially bind them together as sisters, as a family, as the first real family she had ever known.

She looked over at her two friends that were present and then was snapped back into the here and now as Diana let out a wolf whistle at the approach of Tegan and Iona. Sapphire let out a laugh that the immediate blushes that crept up the two girls faces.

Iona didn't really like the spotlight very much when she wasn't performing and always blushed whenever someone even so much as gave her a compliment, she just wasn't as confident when she wasn't dancing, especially not when she was dressed for a club as it was something she rarely did and was unused to the amount of skin showing.

Tegan was just as unused to the amount of skin she was showing as Iona was and by the other girls' standards had dressed rather conservatively for a club. Sapphire could understand Tegan's blushing a little more though. She was still unused to her body after she had worked with Iona, Diana and Sapphire to trim her fat away and lose a little weight. Tegan had never been fat by any means but it had done wonders to alter her appearance to drop the 25 pounds and let her hair grow long. Sapphire was proud of her friend, she had worked really hard with all of them to tone her body and get in shape, and Niamh had even joined too and worked out with Tegan when Sapphire and the others couldn't.

Sapphire laughed again as Niamh joined Diana in the wolf whistles and catcalls while Iona and Tegan's faces grew to even deeper shades of red, Tegan's blush got so dark it almost matched her hair.

"Alright alright you two I think Pax and Tegan have had enough, if they get any redder their pretty faces are going to fall off " Sapphire said between giggles to the two girls on her left now laughing at the bright red faces of their other two friends.

"Seriously though you both look super hot, the boys won't be able to take their eyes off you." Sapphire said with a wink after looking over their outfits as both Tegan and Iona's faces flamed bright red once again.

Tegan had on a royal blue crop top and a black slitted skirt that rested at her waist. Iona had on a bright red Marilyn Monroe style dress that matched her heels. Sapphire looked down at her own outfit, a form fitting, white, body-con dress with her turquoise belt and a light brown cowboy hat, Indiana Jones style. She looked over at Diana and Niamh who both looked kick-ass with their outfit choices as well. Diana had on teal sequined loose fitting tank top and black leather pants that Sapphire had picked out for her and talked her into wearing.

Diana had protested saying "I can't move as fast or kick as well if I wear those." Sapphire had just rolled her eyes at Diana's melodramatics. 'Seriously Diana?' she thought 'you aren't going to be fighting we're going to a dance club'.

She looked over at Niamh who had on a black bra and dark grey mesh see-through shirt and black skirt. Niamh also had on a beautiful silver and gold braided belt wrapped around her waist that matched her shimmering eye shadow and highlighted her eyes. Sapphire grinned again at her four best friends, then linked arms with the two closest to her and dragged them out the door, hailing a taxi as she went.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three. Niamh P.O.V.

Niamh slammed the cab door shut after handing over her share of the cab fare and exiting onto the sidewalk. Goosebumps rose along her arms and neck as a feeling that something was off came over her as she looked at the packed beachfront club. She noticed right away the oddness of the fact that the club was packed with people spilling out the front and onto the various balconies of the three story building but not out to the bonfire on the beach in the back. It seemed odd that the various cabanas were empty, their curtains floating lazily in the wind.

Niamh looked at the packed club, then at the line that stretched outside the door for what seemed like miles. "Come on." Diana pulled on her arm and lead her toward a hole in the wall that Tegan had found "forget the inside of the club we're going to party on the beach instead." She said with a wide grin lighting up her face. Niamh sighed 'it's just as well' she thought 'we were never going to get through that line anyway'.

"Oh don't be such a sour-puss Niamh." Sapphire said as she slung her arm over Niamh's shoulder guiding her toward the little hole in the wall that Iona had already slipped through. Niamh blinked and felt a blush begin to creep up her neck, she hadn't realized that she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

Diana giggled and pulled both Niamh and Sapphire after her adding in "Yeah, Tempy, she's right. Smile a little this is supposed to be a fun night."

"I don't know Di, something doesn't feel right about this place." Niamh said. The feeling of being watched and the hair-raising goosebumps on her arms and neck hadn't left.

"Relax Niamh nothing bad is going to happen. You're just feeling guilty for not standing in line for hours and paying an entrance fee like everyone else. Which considering you're personal history Your Highness, is a bit ironic." Sapphire stated, before shoving her friend through the little hole and onto the beach.

All five girls slipped through the small opening with Tegan coming through last after passing through her violin case. Niamh held the case that held her friend's most prized possession. Tegan took it with her everywhere the group went incase an opportunity came up for her to play. Niamh held the case as she waiting for Tegan to maneuver herself through, wondering at the skills Tegan's family had taught her and how her quiet, reserved friend had come to be her best friend who always found a way in or out of things when there seemed to be none.

Tegan came through the hole in the wall and smiled brightly when Niamh handed her back the violin case. Niamh understood her friend's love for the instrument, there was so much Tegan had to hold in and so much that she couldn't or wouldn't tell anyone. All things that she could say when she played.

Niamh felt the same way about her singing, so much that just couldn't be expressed in regular words, she could sing. This is one of the things that bound the five girls together, despite their differences, was the fact that what each girl was passionate about, she poured her heart and soul into it and left nothing of herself out. For Niamh it was singing, Tegan it was playing her violin, Iona danced, Sapphire ran and did gymnastics, Diana kick boxed.

Niamh was pulled from her thoughts as Iona excitedly grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind their other friends who were already moving toward the bonfire in the sand. The music was so loud Niamh and the others could hear it from outside the building. They could feel it pulsing through the ground under their feet.

It seemed oddly loud to Niamh who thought 'this is how loud I would play the music is I were to try and run a con in a place like this…or to cover up other sounds…' she grinned at the gutter thoughts her mind had turned to and shook her head to clear them thinking 'Stop it Niamh, you're acting like a high school school girl and you're being paranoid nothing bad is going to happen.'

She walked behind the overly excited Iona toward the bonfire, Tegan and Diana having already disappeared to try and find a way to sneak into the club through the back door. Sapphire, Iona and Niamh waited around the fire for a signal from the other two that they had found a way inside. Instead what they got was a group of good-looking guys that followed them to the beach.

The music was so loud that the girls and their new-found dance partners partied outside. Niamh suppressed a wild grin when Tegan and Diana had come back, her worried feeling fading away for a few moments. They had come back with a group of very buff, very good-looking guys. Niamh and the others were so distracted by the new eye candy that not even Niamh's sixth sense alerted her to the second larger group of even stronger looking men with shaved heads lurking in the shadows. It wouldn't be until after the girls' dance partners left to go get drinks that the reason for her odd feeling would show and prove her sixth sense right once again.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four. Niamh P.O.V

Niamh and Iona fell down on the sand by the bonfire, danced out. Niamh's feeling that something bad was about to happen had only grown stronger as the evening had worn on. Iona sat next to her still giggling from their silly dance that Tegan had created for them on her violin, mixing in the sounds of the instrument with the sounds of the music coming from the club behind them.

Tegan had just finished putting her instrument away and had strapped the case to her back, back-pack style, when a slow clap started and Niamh saw Tegan freeze just as she felt herself freezing at the ominous sound. Tegan froze for an entirely different reason than Niamh had though.

Niamh sat frozen as the feeling of dread flooded her senses and she knew she had been right that something bad was about to happen. Only what exactly she had no clue.

She watched Tegan freeze and tense at the sound of the sneering voice that followed the clapping and Niamh felt the blood drain from her face when she saw the brief glimmer of terror in Tegan's hazel eyes when they met Niamh's own green ones. Tegan never panicked. The feeling of foreboding pulled on Niamh, her sixth sense of sorts making the air feel heavy and thick, all alarms telling her that they needed to get out of there and get out fast before one or all of them got hurt.

"Very well done Lila," the voice sneered in disdain as the clapping died away.

Clearly, Niamh thought, it was not actually meant as a compliment. 'Wait' she thought 'Lila? How could this stranger know Tegan's real name? None of the girls had used it ever, they had all been so careful.' Niamh's frown deepened as she realized that this stranger young man must not be a stranger at all, he couldn't be and still know Tegan's true name.

'Oh my God,' Niamh thought as the realization hit her full force 'he's got to be a member of one of the families.' That was the only explanation for it. But which family? Niamh had made sure that her family was well conned into thinking that her friend Tegan was anyone but the missing Lila O'Rourke.

Niamh's eyes snapped back to Tegan as the slightly taller girl set her face in a stony mask, nodded to Niamh, who felt a hand clamp tight over her mouth just as she was about to speak, and turned to face the young man that stood before her. Surrounded by three more burly and rough looking men while the other four had each grabbed one of the other girls to prevent them from running.

Niamh could hear their muffled screams and yelling and the grunts of the men that tried to hold both Sapphire and Diana who were using their gymnast and kickboxing skills to try and fight off their captors. Niamh smiled mentally to herself as she saw her friends fighting like hellions and refusing to give up.

She looked over at Iona who was staring wide-eyed and clearly frightened by the sudden change of events. One minute they were dancing and waiting for the boys that had joined them to return with drinks and the next they were being held hostage. Niamh grimaced; she should have told that they needed to leave as soon as she felt something was off. She should have put her foot down and dragged them all home.

Niamh suddenly found an opening and she took it biting down hard on the hand that was still clamped over her mouth. She smiled in satisfaction when she realized she had drawn blood.

The man howled in pain and released her to hold his injured hand; this was her chance to do something. Niamh ran for it hoping she could get help for the others; maybe find a weapon they could use to fight back with. But she didn't make it much farther than the bonfire when she heard a gunshot and felt a searing burning pain in her side as the bullet grazed her and tore the skin.

Niamh, screamed in pain as she fell to the sand. She put her hand to her side and it came away red and wet with her own blood. She was pissed now.

'That son of a bitch' she thought 'he shot me.' It was all she could think as she seethed with anger toward the large bald man that came closer holding the gun over her and keeping it pointed at her stomach. Niamh felt her eyes flashing in rage between the guns, the man wielding it and the boy who seemed to be in charge of the group.

The boy came closer and knelt down next to Niamh.

"That was a stupid move girl, I suggest you stay down this time or I will tell Ivan here not to be so lenient." The creepy boy said. His face was young and covered in freckles and he had a shock of bright red hair.

'He can't be much older than 16, maybe 17 at the most.' Niamh thought as he stroked the side of her face as he continued " and what a shame that would be, Ivan would have undoubtedly have ruined your pretty face."

Niamh shuddered in disgust as his creepy cheek stroking continued. Seething with rage she made stupid mistake number two that night. She spat in his face. Her temper was out of control and she watched in satisfaction as his face contorted in anger and he stood quickly.

Niamh had only a second to brace for the pain she saw coming as he brought his foot back and kicked her in the ribs with such force that it threw her closer to the ocean. So close she could almost feel the water and the sting the salt would bring when it reached her wounds. Ivan came and stood over again and spat in her face, calling her what she assumed was the Russian equivalent of "stupid bitch" or something along those lines.

'O.K. that's it' Niamh thought 'I've had enough of this bullshit.' She sat up faster than "Ivan" was expecting, head butting him in the gut and, despite the immense pain coursing through her, her anger was greater and it fueled her actions. Niamh stomped on his hand that was holding the gun and when he released it she threw it as far as she was able into the water.

This was mistake number three.

Niamh hadn't counted on the fact that Ivan would have another weapon. She didn't feel the knife as it was stuck into her shoulder, she didn't hear her friends' screams or Tegan's yelling at the boy to leave Niamh and the others alone. All Niamh felt was white-hot pain. It blinded her and dark spots started to fill her vision, until eventually, as she felt herself falling into the sand and saltwater, everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five. Tegan P.O.V.

"Niamh!" Tegan and the others all screamed as they watched their friend and sister fall back onto the sand with the knife in her shoulder and not get back up. All of the girls' struggles to get free were renewed with a new strength and vigor until a knife was pressed against the throat, back or side of each girl. Each stopped struggling and looked at Tegan.

She saw a mixture of fear, tears and anger in their eyes and felt her own anger and fear surge within her. When one of the men squeezed Iona's arm hard enough to leave bruises and make her yelp, Tegan turned to her brother, twisting her head so she could see him from where she was being held by two men under the arms and forced into a kneeling position in the sand.

"Liam!" she snapped calling her little brother's attention back to her. Better he focus his anger on her than on another of her friends, though Tegan hoped that Sapphire, Diana and Iona would have more sense than Niamh and not fight back. She watched as Liam slowly turned back to her, schooling his features the way their family taught.

"What do you want Liam?" Tegan questioned. Her features just as schooled. She had slipped once when Niamh had been stabbed and shouted her friend's name.

If Liam's goal was to torture her, like Tegan suspected it was, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Tegan looked at her friends once more and gave a barely perceptible nod of her head hoping they would understand and forgive her later.

Tegan turned her cold eyes to Liam and said in an almost bored tone "Let them go Liam they aren't important, I barely know any of them. If your plan is to use them against me it won't work, I have no attachment to these girls."

Inwardly Tegan cringed at the pain this would inflict on her friends. She only hoped that they could see that she was trying to save them from worse physical pain later by hurting them now.

Liam shook his head "Tsk, tsk you've lost your touch sister, I would say I'm glad but it just disgusts me. Father was so proud of you, he always talked about how cold you were, how strong and good of a torturer you were. Seems he was wrong. You're nothing but a weak bitch who couldn't stomach some of the harsher facts of life."

He spat while walking away from Tegan to inspect her friends.

"I've been looking for you for a long time Lila." Liam continued as he walked in front of Iona and stopped, tilting her head to inspect her face. Tegan held her breath as she watched Liam bring his arm back and then slamming it into the side of Iona's face, splitting her lip and making a bruise blossom immediately across her cheekbone and under her right eye.

Tegan didn't look away, she kept her face organized in a bored expression, though she felt as if she had been punched as well. To her credit Iona had barely made a sound and when she looked up at Tegan there were tears but understanding in her green-blue eyes. Iona nodded and Tegan turned her bored face to Liam who had moved on to Sapphire. She had to convince Liam that her friends meant nothing to her then maybe he would let them go.

"Three years. Lila, three years that's how long it's been since the FBI made you disappear. How long mom and dad have been in jail. How long Patrick and I have been alone, in and out of foster homes. How long I've been looking for you. How long I've had to grow to hate you and everything you took away from me!"

He shouted the last part at Tegan and then pivoted back to Sapphire, who he had turned away from while speaking and punched her in the ribs audibly cracking at least one.

"Then deal with me Liam and leave these girls be, they are innocent in this." Tegan replied. Eyeing her younger brother as he began to walk down toward Diana.

"You see Lila I would, but in my three years that I spent searching for you I made some friends." Liam waved his hand nonchalantly at the Russian mobsters that were holding her and the others.

"You remember the hidden Russian mob somewhere on the west coast? Remember how everyone used to speculate at what their specialty was? Well I found them and I found out. They have three specialties it turns out. Being the muscle, spying, and my favorite, making people disappear." He paused. "Permanently."

When Liam stopped speaking he snapped his fingers and the man holding Diana yanked on one of her arms, straining the muscles in her shoulder and dislocating it so that it hung limply at her side. Diana let out a short strangled cry before she clamped her mouth shut.

Tegan assumed that like Iona and Sapphire, Diana refused to give Liam and the Russian thugs the satisfaction of hearing her cry out in pain. Tegan watched Liam with calculating eyes at his manic smile that had appeared at even the small gasp of pain that had escaped from Diana's lips.

'He's insane.' Tegan thought. 'He's gone crazy, my God what did they do to him in those foster homes?' She thought as her eyes tracked her brother's flaming red head as he walked around the other side of the fire and placed a metal branding iron in the flames.

Tegan stared at it in growing horror and fear. The branding iron she recognized. It had been sitting as a mantelpiece in their living room for years, an old family heirloom with their family crest on it. It was meant to be a permanent reminder of who the family was and what they were capable of.

"Please Liam," Tegan whispered, "I know you hate me now but I'm not sorry for what I did, they deserved what they got. I tried to take you and Patrick with me, to take you away from mom and dad and the family, before they turned you into ruthless, heartless killers like Keegan and Aidan." Tegan said, tired of whatever game Liam was playing.

"You ruined my life!" He suddenly yelled at her springing forward and hitting Tegan hard across the face, cutting her cheek.

"I wanted to be like Dad and the others, I wanted to be like you. I looked up to you Lila, Pat did too, you were so cool to us, you could do anything." He paused and went back to turn the brand over in the fire so all sides would get equally hot.

"And then you just left and everything changed in one night. Everyone was being arrested there were police and guns and smoke cans in the house." Liam paused again, as if the memories of that day pained him, but Tegan wasn't fooled. She had seen the madness in him, his hate had consumed him and left no room for anything else.

"And you weren't there Lila. You didn't have to watch as they tore our family apart. Separating us, putting me and Pat in some strangers house." Liam said quietly before he paused again and looked up from the fire at the man holding Iona and jerked his head.

The man picked up Iona as if she were a rag doll and brought her close to the fire and held her over it. Tegan struggled to keep her face passive as the man held her friend closer to the flames and Iona shrieked in fear as the smell of burning hair filled the air.

Part of Iona's long blonde hair was now black and shriveled. Liam jerked his head again and the man restraining Diana dragged her over to the ocean and forced her head halfway underwater. Not enough to submerge her head but with the waves hitting her face every few seconds it was enough to make it difficult to breathe.

"Liam stop this!" Tegan yelled as she saw the sweat bead on Iona's face and smell more of her hair as it began to burn and heard Diana's gasps for air.

"You're angry with me not them, leave them alone!" She yelled. Tegan knew she had just broken rule number one her father had taught her. Never let your emotions control you or your actions. Tegan was past caring about fooling her little brother into letting her friends go, it clearly hadn't worked and with each passing minute Tegan knew she and her friends were sinking into increasingly more danger. Niamh was already hurt and unconscious, God only knew if she was even alive. Diana was struggling to breathe from the water constantly hitting her face, Iona could hardly see or breathe from the smoke and sweat dripping into her eyes. It was Sapphire's sharp gasp of pain as the man restraining her dug his knife into her arm and began making long, slow, and deep gashes down her forearm.

Tegan snapped. Her anger over took her fear and she fought against her restrainers. She knew it was futile but if Liam was planning on hurting her, even killing her through physical torture then she'd make sure she damn well employed psychological tortures and would leave him with some scars too.

The only problem was finding a way to get to him, get under skin. It was easy with a sane person, most had their fears written plainly on their faces. But an insane person was always nearly impossible and Liam was definitely insane.

During Tegan's training, her father had said her crowning moment had been when she had extracted all useful information out of a target. But the psychological terrors she had employed had fractured the man's mental clarity and put him in an insane asylum. She had never been allowed to see if she could reverse the damage.

Before Tegan could say another word, Liam stood up with the branding iron and told her restrainers to keep her from thrashing. By this time Iona had passed out form the heat of the fire, Diana was dropped half in and half out of the water as she succumbed to unconsciousness as well.

Tegan jerked her head to look over at Sapphire whose screams of pain had stopped. She saw the blood dripping down Sapphire's arms, staining the ground beneath her feet as her head dropped to rest on her shoulder as she passed out as well from blood loss. Tegan had to fight down the bile that was rising in her throat as she watched the blood drip and when she saw the Russian thugs carelessly toss her friends into a pile next to Niamh's unconscious form and then stare at the four defenseless girls hungrily.

Tegan felt the heat of the branding iron as it was brought close to her face.

"Do you know what this is Lila?" Liam asked from his position in front of her where he held the iron close.

"Oh how silly, of course you recognize this it was your favorite once," he said while turning the brand so the falcon's head was upright instead of sideways. Tegan grimaced at the truth of the statement. She cringed at the memory of how she had been the first to reintroduce the old relic and she hated herself for it.

"And to think, everyone was so surprised and thrilled when you brought it out of the dusty shadows of disuse and then just threw it away!" Liam yelled angrily as he pressed the hot brand briefly against the corner of her eye.

Tegan didn't even have time to scream as the brand moved swiftly to press deep and blindingly hot over her heart. Then she screamed as Liam pressed harder and then the brand drew blood.

She saw Liam's sick twisted smile before he removed the brand and she fell forward into the sand her captors having released her. Tegan gasped in pain as the sand stung her new wounds and her blood seeped into the ground. She spasmed in pain when the brand pressed once more into her back right over the back of her heart in an exact reflection of her front. Tegan screamed and screamed, as it seemed the brand would never leave her skin.

She began to black out from the pain. The last things she heard and felt before being thrown in the pile with her friends, was Liam's spit on the back of her head and his command to dispose of his "disgraced sister and her friends, where no one will find them."

Tegan and the others would have no idea of the events that occurred after they passed out to when they awoke.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six. 3RD Person Objective Narrator P.O.V.

All of the now unconscious girls were thrown haphazardly in a pile on the shore, where the sand and waves met. None of the men milling about, waiting for an order from the young boy paying for their help in tracking down and torturing a lost sister, expected the rain. Or the lightning that began to pour almost as soon as the boy's sister was thrown on top of the bloody pile of girls.

The lightning struck so close that the men could smell the ozone left in the air in it's wake and feel the static electricity making their hair (what little of it they had) stand on end.

The wind was picking up rapidly and the waves were rising higher and higher. The men began to retreat and head for shelter as the lightning got closer, letting mother nature do their job for them and dispose of the not-yet-dead girls bodies.

As the men retreated the red head boy began to yell something and point at the girls who where beginning to sink deeper into the sand and water. Clearly he wanted the men to dispose of the girls themselves but whatever his actual words were, were lost in the wind. The leader of the men, Ivan, shook his head and pointed to the rising waves then turned around and began to retreat once more.

The boy was furious. He raised the branding iron he had used on the last girl and was about to run at the retreating man's back when lightning struck the ground behind him. The concussion that followed knocked all the men off their feet along with the electric current that ran through the wet sand and shocked them all.

The Russians and the boy lie in the rain and sand dazed and spasming with the volts running through their bodies, trying to catch their breath. The boy and Ivan were the first to recover. When they sat up they looked to where the bolt had struck.

The black scorched sand and still sizzling water and in the very center a piece of sand turned to glass from the heat of the strike. In the center of the glass, encased by it, was the falcon pendant the boy's sister had worn.

That was all that was left of the five girls, that and a few drops of each of their blood all mingled together in the exact same spot. It slowly began to seep into the still hot glass, dying it red as the ocean cooled it. The bolt had struck right where the girls had lain, right where the sand, the sea and their blood had met. And the girls were gone, there was not a trace of them to be found save for in the glass.

The men sat in stunned silence as the storm that had appeared out of no where, disappeared just as quickly as it started, taking the girls with it in a single blast of electricity.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven. Diana P.O.V.

Diana groaned and rolled over onto her side off of the rock she seemed to have been laying on. She couldn't do much more than that, even breathing was hard. It was raining and very very cold. It must have been raining for awhile as Diana could feel her shirt stick to her body.

'What am I doing outside in the rain?' she thought. 'Why does my arm feel like its been in a taffy stretcher? And why does the rest of me feel like it went through a wash cycle with rocks?'

Diana tried to move her arms but found she couldn't even feel one of them.

'What the hell happened last night? Where the hell am I?' she thought as she took in her surroundings. There were trees all around her, a dense forest, and Diana could hear water running somewhere close by. She could also hear horses snorting and stamping their feet.

'Horses?' Diana would have shaken her head in disbelief if she could have but she didn't have the energy for it. 'What are horses doing near the beach in Southern California?'

Diana closed her eyes to the rain that was still falling wondering what exactly had happened to her.

She kept her eyes closed, willing herself to remember the events of the night before. She left her brain relax to focus her memory and begin to sort through the images of last night that were flashing before her inner eye.

The cold rain stung when it hit her chest and torso, similar to how she felt in the shower when the water would hit a particularly nasty bruise from her kickboxing partner. It stung but it cooled the burning sensation of the swollen area around her ribs. Diana licked her lips every time a raindrop fell on them out of habit and faintly tasted salt. 'Was I in the ocean last night?' she wondered as she licked her lips again and again as the rain began to fall harder around her.

She shivered in the cold and an intense pain spiked through her torso and right arm. Diana couldn't help but cry out in pain. Her breathing was rapid and painful. Diana had kept her eyes squeezed shut against the pain, she hadn't heard the horses from before approach and come closer or the voices of the men riding the animals. She did feel a stranger's hand on her arm though, which was enough to startle her into action.

Her right arm might be useless at the moment but Diana could still use her legs and left arm she reasoned. Her eyes flew open as she grit her teeth against the pain and swiped her legs under the long haired blonde man leaning over her and touching her arm. Diana hooked one leg around his waist and she used his leaning to pull herself up. She took his feet out from under him with her other leg. Within a matter of seconds, faster than the man could blink, Diana had flipped him onto his back and she was straddling him with one knee pressed into his groin and ready to apply more pressure if necessary. Her good arm was pinning his hands above his head.

Diana blinked at the man, she hadn't meant to flip him, she had just reached to the foreign touch but now she found herself blushing at the fact that she had and that she was now straddling him around the waist leaning over him so her good arm could continue to keep his arms pinned. Though hers were beginning to shake with the effort. It didn't help that she was breathing heavily from the pain the move had illicited. Her impulsive gut reaction to the strange man's touch had aggravated whatever injuries she had that ignited the fire around her ribs.

Fortunately Diana wasn't in that position for very long. Unfortunately she was hauled up and off the man by her injured arm and the pain that lashed through her caused her to scream. The angle she was picked up at jolted her memory of last night, all the images in her head lining up in order.

Tegan's crazy little brother, the Russian mobster that had forced her to drink seawater and had pulled her arm out of place then threw her down next to Niamh as she passed out. That was all Diana could remember, she didn't know where Sapphire, Tegan, Niamh or Iona were. She didn't know what happened to them.

The man dropped her back to the ground as she screamed in pain and Diana instantly whipped her head around taking in her surroundings again as the pain receded searching for her friends.

She pushed herself up to stand with her good arm and met the stares of seven very large very strange yet good looking men not much older than she was.

They wore a mix of leather and metal armor and each had a weapon. The man Diana had flipped, who was still on his back on the ground, had an axe strapped to his belt at his waist, two had bows and arrows, notched and pointed at her she noticed, all had swords. Her eyes landed on the weapons and the men that were slowly advancing on her. Except for the ones with the arrows none of them had weapons drawn.

'Where the heck am I? Did I stumble into a Renaissance fair or something?' Diana wondered as she took a step back for every step they took forward. The man with the metal armor and red cape who seemed to be the leader of the group began to speak but it wasn't English. It sounded more like gibberish to Diana. She just stared at him in confusion as she continued to back away.

Diana had decided that maybe she had been dumped by those Russian goons on a crazy farm, either that or a Renaissance fair and these guys were just really committed.

'Too bad' she thought, 'they are really good looking for a bunch of renaissance nerds…or crazy people. Especially the blonde one I flipped. Oh my God Diana stop it,' she berated herself 'You need to find Sapphire and the others and figure out how to get home, stop admiring the hot possibly crazy guy.' She took another step back and tripped over a rock landing hard on her backside.

The blonde man (who was now standing) gave a small laugh along with another dark haired man with a bow and arrow (no longer pointed at her). She swung her gaze to glare at the two men in indignation.

The next events that happened took Diana's breath away and replaced it with fear. She hardly had time to process everything as it happened.

The dark haired man that had the arrow pointing at her previously that laughed started to come over to help her up when an arrow struck his shoulder. In a flash all the men had their weapons drawn and an onslaught of people with blue tattoos poured out of the trees and started attacking the men who had found Diana. The dark haired man notched his own arrow again and let it fly before pulling out his sword and beginning to slash and hack at the blue people.

Diana sat there hoping to be invisible but when some of the blue weirdos started to notice her, she knew she couldn't sit idle anymore. Three of them ran at her with axes and swords raised and Diana pushed herself into a crouching position. Her kickboxing instructors voice echoing in her head about how to handle multiple opponents.

She began to circle with her opponents waiting for them to make the first move. She didn't have to wait long as the largest of the three blue dudes lunged at her but his axe was intercepted by anothers'. The one belonging to the blonde man she flipped mere minutes. Diana stood up from her crouching position in wonder. 'Why would this stranger protect me?' She thought then 'Nevermind that Diana, you need to find the others, you need to get out of here.' With that Diana took one last look at the handsome 'yet probably crazy' she thought again, man that was defending her, saw one blue creep that managed to get around him and come for her. Diana waited, got close, within his defenses and punched him in the throat taking the wind out of him and then she took off running.

Diana ran and ran trying to look for her friends as she tried to outrun the weird blue painted crazies. She didn't make it far. She hadn't noticed right away but as soon as she took off running there were several more of the blue people that followed her. What Diana also didn't notice was that as soon as she had sprinted away with the blue fighters chasing, was that the blonde man had leaped on his horse to chase the blue people that were chasing her.

Her breathing was hard and her good arm burned along with her bruised ribs making everything that much more difficult. If she had been looking where she was going instead of glancing behind to see how close the blue weirdoes were, she would have seen the form of her best friend and closest sister standing just feet in front of her before colliding and sending both girls tumbling headlong down the side of a ravine before stopping at the edge of a stream.

Both girls groaned as they sat back up after a few seconds of heavy breathing from the tumble down the hill. Groaning that was accompanied by a third voice saying "Will you two get your fat muscly butts off! I swear you're crushing the life out of me." Iona gasped form underneath them.

"Iona!" Diana yelled in excitement as she scrambled to get off her friend while Sapphire yelled "Pax! You're alright!" and attacked the tiny blonde woman with a fierce hug.

"Fire. Need Oxygen. Now!" Iona gasped as Sapphire's hug crushed her even more causing some of Sapphire's cuts to bleed again and stain Iona's skin.

"Sorry Pax, I'm just so glad to see you both again and that you're both ok." She said before transferring her air-depriving hug from Iona to Diana who returned it as best she could.

"Where the hell are we? What the hell happened? What did that creepy little brother of Tegan's do to us? Oh my God where are Tegan and Niamh?" Iona asked in alarm. Her level of worry rising without end until Sapphire held up a calming hand.

"We don't know Pax, Diana only just crashed into me a few moments ago and we just found you too and that was purely by chance, I have no idea where the others are. All I can tell is that we definitely aren't in California and it's definitely not 2014. Tegan and Niamh ought to be close by, the three of us are here so they should be here somewhere too. As near as I can tell something happened after we all blacked out and we seemed to have traveled back in time. I think we are somewhere at some point in time during Roman occupied Britain.''

Sapphire stopped when Diana gave her an incredulous look.

"Fire how do you know that we didn't get body dumped by Tegan's crazy brother and his thugs at a looney bin?" Diana shook her head thinking, 'no way they travelled back in time. That sort of thing just wasn't possible…was it?'

"Where's your proof Fire?" Diana continued with a skeptical look on her face. Sapphire fidgeted a bit before answering and when she did, it was pretty darn hard not to see that she had a point and could be right.


	8. Chapter 8

***IMPORTANT* **

**Author's note; hey all thanks so so much for reading! :) I hope you are all enjoying it so far! Please review too don't be shy :) I like hearing what you have to say and I am open to suggestions! Just an FYI however, I've been 1.) a little lazy with keeping up with typing the chapters (I'm old school and I write them on paper first) AND 2.) I'm going on vacation for the next 10 days or so and I likely will not be updating until I get back. Thanks! Now back to the story!**

Chapter Eight. Iona P.O.V.

Iona had woken up briefly, feeling sore and very dehydrated. She could hear running water and that became her first priority. She stiffly managed to walk and find the source of the noise.

She didn't care that she was wandering around in the middle of the woods, she didn't wonder how she had gotten here or where "here" even was. After being held so close to the fire for so long, feeling it lick her skin, Iona had only one thought and goal in mind, that was to get water.

When she found it she knelt down in the mud and rocks and scooped mouthful after mouthful with her hands until her throat felt less like the Sahara desert. It was nice and cool and it eased the burning feeling of her parched throat.

Iona was about to sit back and finally take in her surroundings when she heard crashing and yelling behind her. She turned around just in time to be bowled over by two of her sisters and have the air knocked out of her. Sapphire and Diana had tumbled down the hill and chosen Iona to act as their landing gear. Typical.

She didn't have long after getting Fire and Di off her lungs to take a breath and re-inflate them before Fire crushed the air right out of them again in a big bear hug. As soon as she was released and could breath properly Iona's mind and mouth began running at a mile a minute assaulting her friends with questions. Questions she hoped that they would have the answers to since she had just regained consciousness.

"Where's your proof Fire?" Diana questioned. Sapphire had just suggested that they had some how been transported back in time to Roman Britain.

'Well' Iona thought, 'that answers at least one of my questions.'

Sapphire seemed convinced while Diana looked skeptical at best and Iona herself was just as confused, but as long as it kept her far away from Tegan's sociopathic brother, Iona was willing to believe the time travel theory.

"My proof is all around us Diana" Sapphire finally started after Iona watched her fidget. She continued.

"I've been awake for about a day as far as I can tell. I saw standing stones about 3 miles to I think the west of us, where I found the edge of the forest when I was looking for you guys. They look an awful lot like the ones in pictures of Stonehenge, only this one is more complete. There are fewer stones missing. Also when's the last time you've ever heard of snow in San Diego? Or a forest for that matter? Since when has it ever been this cold at school Diana? Also your friends there are dressed in the style of clothes worn around the 4th and 5th centuries in Britain, which was under Roman rule at that time."

Sapphire finished with a slight huff and a nod in the direction of seven men on horseback holding bows, arrows, swords, battle-axes, and were dressed in leather armor. All except the leader who had on Roman armor.

Diana snapped her mouth shut after Sapphire pointed out that they were clearly not in California anymore.

'And this is why you don't argue with a History and geography major.' Iona thought dryly as she looked at the men and felt the cold in the air, confirming pretty much everything Sapphire had just iterated. She had to admit it looked like Sapphire was right, everything so far was fitting with the time travel theory rather than Diana's looney bin idea. If this were a crazy farm they would be in white walled rooms with jackets, not out in a forest covered in blood and dirt and freezing. And they definitely wouldn't allow pointy objects to be carried around that was like rule number one in any insane center.

Iona scrutinized the group of men. None of them looked much older than she was, the oldest looked to be in his early thirties and was a bit more rotund than the rest. But it looked like he had just as much muscle as the rest.

The youngest looked to be about Tegan and Sapphire's age, 22. The rest looked to be between 22 and 25 with the exception of the tallest one.

He had buzz cut brown hair, a scar that ran over his right eye, and a larger version of the battle axe his friend, with a lion's mane worth of blonde hair, held.

'He's very handsome' Iona suddenly thought as her eyes lingered on him a little longer than the others. He looked to be between 25 and 30 she decided when she met his dark brown eyes and saw the age there, similar to the man who looked to be in his early thirties.

The giant she had been blatantly staring at gave a small cautionary smile after they inadvertently held eye contact for a few moments. Iona felt a blush rise to her cheeks in embarrassment at being caught staring. She made the mistake of glancing down and saw the charred ends of her hair and the mud that covered her up to her knees. She felt her cheeks get hotter as the blush increased in intensity along with her embarrassment.

Iona crossed her arms and wrapped them around her middle. There was nothing she could do to help cover her or really clean off her mud covered legs or the small burns that littered her arms and legs from when she had been held too close to the fire.

Iona's head snapped back up when she heard movement from the group of men. Without thinking she, Sapphire and Diana each took a slight step back. That's when she noticed Diana's fire engine red blush. She followed Diana's line of sight and saw that she was staring at the (now smirking) lion haired man. Iona couldn't help it. She began to giggle and when Diana and Sapphire's heads whipped around to stare at her, she lost her control entirely and quiet Iona burst out laughing.

"I think Pax here inhaled a few to many lungfuls of smoke" Sapphire stage whispered to Diana. Which means it wasn't whispered at all. "I think she's lost Di…did we land on her lungs or her skull?" She continued while looking at Iona with concern.

Iona took a few deep breaths thinking 'get a grip Pax, there's nothing funny about our situation.'

The giggles didn't stop though, not for a few minutes more anyway, but which point everyone was staring at her trying to determine what she found so funny. She shook her head knowing her friends would want an explanation but she had nothing to offer other than that she had just realized _just_ how ridiculous they must look to these men.

Then she nudged Diana's good shoulder and giggled again saying "Especially you right now Di, you look like a Christmas tree ornament your face is so red."

As soon as Iona had stopped speaking she saw Diana's hand fly up to cover on of her bright red cheeks.

"It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that man with the long dark blonde hair would it?" Iona continued watching Diana for a reaction. Even Sapphire began to giggle when Diana's face became even redder as she mumbled.

"I may have flipped him onto his back and straddled him earlier." Diana looked at her bare feet then as Iona and Sapphire both began laughing hysterically. Both stopped and began to calm themselves though when Iona heard a cough almost directly in front of her to get all the girls attention.

She looked up and came face to chest with the giant man she had been staring at earlier. She looked up and their eyes met again. Now it was her turn to blush redder than a tomato again.

A deep voice emanated from the man's broad chest saying, "My name is Dagonet. I mean you no harm. I only wish to offer my services as a healer to take a look at and treat what I can of your wounds here."

Iona forgot how to breathe in those few moments after she heard his deep bass voice and looked up and saw the sincerity in his eyes. Then she was forced to remember how as Sapphire pushed her closer toward the man.

'Dagonet' she thought, 'his name is Dagonet.'

Iona felt Sapphire practically push her into Dagonet and she forced herself to remember how to breathe and speak when he asked, "What is your name?" Iona felt her blush grow darker in embarrassment when she stuttered and stumbled over her name in her sudden shyness.

"Iona" he repeated, seemingly testing her name out before continuing. "May I?" Dagonet asked indicating that he wanted to inspect the burns that littered her body.

All Iona could do was nod, her tongue caught in her throat at her sudden and debilitating shyness around this very attractive giant of a man named Dagonet.


	9. Chapter 9

***Authors Note* **

**First of all a special thanks to my first reviewer :) *virtual cookies* and to my first followers! :D I'm so glad you all like the story so far! Keep 'em coming! Please keep reviewing good, bad or otherwise constructive criticisms help me as a writer. As always grammar guru's are welcome too (still no promises that I will fix any or all grammar mistakes though) Also please please please if you see any story plot holes let me know so I can try to reconcile them cuz sometimes I forget as I'm writing a new chapter that I already mentioned a certain piece or that I never introduced it at all. I'm also thinking of playing around with some chapter style techniques, let me know what ya'll think. Also any requests for a random character POV?**

**As always, I own nothing from King Arthur or events in the story except for the characters and events I make up. **

**Enjoy!**

Chapter Nine. Sapphire P.O.V.

A giant of a man came up and said his name was Dagonet or 'Dag' for short. Sapphire wrinkled her nose thinking it was an unfortunate nickname since to her it sounded a bit like 'Dog'.

Almost as soon as 'Dag' stopped speaking, and Iona managed to stop stuttering like a fish out of water, Diana started freaking out.

"How can I understand you now?" She asked in a shrill voice, one that almost made Sapphire want to cover her ears. Sapphire watched as a deep frown settled on her face.

All seven of the men were now dismounted from their horses and two started to walk toward Sapphire and her friends. Except for Iona whose arm was now being inspected by the giant man Dagonet, the girls each took an involuntary step back.

The two men that had begun walking toward Sapphire, Diana and Iona stopped and held up their hands to show what Dagonet had already expressed verbally; they meant no harm.

Sapphire narrowed her eyes at them anyway daring them to come closer. Just because Pax was quick to trust a perfect stranger doesn't mean Sapphire was, especially when Sapphire wasn't at all sure that she and Diana would be able to fight their way out, away from the strange men, if they needed to. You know, just in case these guys really did escape from the looney bin, not that Sapphire would ever admit to the slight possibility that Diana was right, but just in case.

The two men, the leader in the red cape and the blonde one that smirked and made Diana blush all shades of red again, noticed her glare and stayed where they were. They must have been able to see how skittish Sapphire was feeling, she kept her knees bent and was ready to bolt and drag Diana and Iona along with her at a moments notice.

"What do you mean you couldn't understand them before Di? When did you meet before?" Sapphire asked, her eyes never straying from the three men closest to them.

"I don't know Fire, but when these guys first found me they were speaking gibberish. I couldn't understand a word. They found me just before I crashed into you."

Diana shook her head and looked down at her feet.

"I don't know why I can understand them now, maybe it's just because my brain is fully functioning again." She continued before looking up and meeting the eyes of the blonde man.

"I'm sorry for flipping you by the way, I was startled and acted on instinct." Diana finished, her eyes not leaving the man she had put flat on his back only minutes before.

Sapphire saw the smile that split her friends' face when the man waved it off as nothing to worry about and that he had not been offended. Sapphire couldn't help but smile at her friends who had now developed full-blown crushes.

'Of all the people in the world, leave it to these two to fall in love with someone they just met after being attacked by a psychopath and his goons.' Sapphire thought smiling and shaking her head at her ridiculous friends.

Sapphire lessened her glare when the lead man in red introduced himself as Arthur and explained a little more fully how they had found Diana after hearing her cry of pain (at which point Diana blushed in embarrassment again) and how they had been attacked by Woads and wanted to make sure Diana was safe and had not been killed or carried off.

Though Sapphire had felt her glare lessening as she listened to Arthur's story her glare snapped back full force as a new voice added rather cynically to the conversation.

"Or to make sure she wasn't a Woad herself sent to spy and meant to draw us into another ambush, in which case we would have just killed her and you and your other friend there."

The man that the new voice belonged to said nodding in Iona's direction. It was the one with dark curling hair and twin swords strapped to his back. He was the only one, Sapphire noticed other than another man who had disappeared on horseback into the woods, who was still armed.

"Lancelot!" the leader, Arthur, said in warning.

"The lady ran because she was being attacked by Woads just as we were, these three women have shown us no intent or means of harming us, we can give them the benefit of the doubt"

He concluded at which point the dark curly haired man shot back "She had Gawain flat on his back with his arms pinned above his head so he was effectively unable to reach his weapon, with a hurt arm and no weapons herself to speak of, All within a matter of seconds for the gods sakes! They could still be working with the Woads Arthur to bring us into a trap."

He finished with his arms crossed and a glare aimed at Diana who crossed her arms angrily and muttered so only Sapphire and Iona and possibly Dagonet could hear.

"I was only able to do that from the adrenaline rush at being startled. I doubt I would have been able to pin him down at all if I hadn't taken him by surprise."

Sapphire couldn't help it, she snorted at the ridiculousness of this cynical mans' statements. He swung his glare around to land on her upon hearing Sapphire's derisive snort.

Sapphire was un-phased on the outside, (his glare was nothing compared to what Tegan could dish out) but internally she was starting to freak out.

They really were in the past, in the time of King Arthur before he was king to be exact. All the names were matching up along with characteristics attributed to them in all the legends. Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, Dagonet and Sapphire was willing to bet that the other three men were Galahad, Tristan and Bors.

"And why should we believe otherwise?" Lancelot questioned Sapphire at hearing her snort at his accusations. Sapphire felt her temper rising rapidly and she vaguely heard Iona mutter under her breath "Oh shit now he's done it. Here we go." Dagonet must have given her a questioning look because Iona's next statement was just simply "Temper."

Sapphire crossed her arms over her chest in much the same fashion that Lancelot had his crossed over his chest. She huffed.

"Because you sound like a paranoid imbecile who either can't or won't take his head out of his ass and take a look at the facts around him because he's too self absorbed to notice anyone or anything else other than himself."

Lancelot's face had gotten redder and redder with each word, while Arthur just stood there in a shocked silence and the fat one had his mouth hanging open in surprise before he began to laugh. Clearly no one had been expecting Sapphire to speak as she had.

"She's just as much of a stubborn spit fire as you are eh Lance?" The fat one said while laughing and slapping Lancelot on the back.

"Shut up Bors." Lancelot said, his arms shaking slightly as he controlled his own anger, something Sapphire had never been particularly good at.

"You still have yet to prove that you aren't Woads and that this isn't some sort of elaborate trap."

Lancelot kept his glare trained on Sapphire and stuck to his original accusations. Sapphire felt her temper get even more out of control as she grew more irritated with this man who seemed adamant about refusing to use his brain and really assess the facts right before his eyes.

"Look" She started, "if this were a trap don't you think we would have been attacked by now? Also your scout would have warned you by now as I highly doubt he would be gone for as along as he is if there were danger nearby. Secondly have you ever seen Woads dressed as we are before? No? I thought not. Third, if we were working with the Woads then why would they attack us along with you? Fourth do you see any blue paint anywhere on any of us? Because I don't remember putting that on yesterday."

She finished her little rant, blowing wide holes in the basis for his argument. Just to add to her point Sapphire spun around a few times in a circle for all the men to see, making a show of checking her arms and legs after for blue Woad markings.

"She has a point Lancelot" Dagonet chimed in "I see no markings on any of them, all I see are injuries."

"The lady has a point Lance, if this were truly a trap they would not have waited so long and Tristan would have returned by now. These three young women would not have been attacked themselves if they were truly working with the Woads."

Arthur stated before clapping a hand on Lancelot's shoulder and continuing.

"I appreciate your caution friend but it would appear that this time your concerns were unfounded. However, I would like you all to accompany us back to the Fort so we may know how you ended up here in such a state of injury and undress."

Arthur finished, turning away from Lancelot who he had been smiling at good-naturedly. The smile slowly faded away as he turned to look at Sapphire and the hidden meaning in his polite words seemed startlingly clear to her.

'He means to interrogate us, despite the fact that I just proved we were not enemies.' Sapphire thought her anger rising again.

'But what choice do we have?' she thought as she nodded her consent to Arthur who was waiting for Lancelot to visibly begin to relax before removing his hand from Lancelot's shoulder. Though he was still clearly quite mad at the comments Sapphire had made about his being self-absorbed he did eventually lose some of the tension in his shoulders.

Mentally Sapphire laughed, if she and her sisters were truly in the time of the great King Arthur, then Sapphire doubted these men had ever experienced a woman as loud and outspoken and independent as she and the others were. She doubted that many of the women at this "Fort" had ever spoken to any of the Knights as freely as she knew she and her sisters were apt to do for however long they were there until they went back to their own time, if they ever went back that is.

Arthur was just about to address her and Diana and Iona when the missing knight with tattoos on his face returned and said something that only Arthur could hear. He unstrapped something from the saddle on his horse and was about to drop it when Sapphire, Diana and Iona all recognized it as Tegan's violin case and shouted in unison as he began to let it drop.

Their sudden unified shout was probably the worst thing they could have done. It startled his horse into rearing, almost throwing the man off causing him to let go of Tegan's violin. All three watched in horror as the case began to fall toward the ground. Sapphire felt herself spring forward to try and catch it but even she couldn't move fast enough and the case fell to the ground under the horse's feet.

'Oh no' She thought 'Oh no, oh no, oh no, please horse don't step on it, please, please, please.'

Sapphire kept repeating the mantra as the knight began to calm his horse. She eased up slowly making and maintaining eye contact with the spooked animal as she slowly moved around it to try and retrieve the fallen case.

She didn't make it.

The horse backed up away from her on step too many and there was a sickening crunch as the weight of the horse splintered the wood of the fragile instrument.

She froze at the sound and felt her face drop in remorse. She didn't make it in time to save Tegan's violin. She knew when her friend found out she would be devastated, for so long that violin had been Tegan's only outlet, the only way she could say everything she was holding in without using a word, and now it was gone.

The horse finally calmed and the man dismounted and retrieved the crushed case from the ground. He brought it over to Sapphire and handed the case to her. Sapphire took it and looked up at Arthur and Lancelot who surprisingly no longer looked suspicious of her or her friends.

Sapphire cleared her throat and willed herself not to cry, not to take this as a bad omen about Tegan and Niamh. She cleared her throat once more and looked in all seriousness, all anger and temper from before now gone, and addressed Arthur and his knights.

"This belongs to another friend of ours, Tegan, we need to find her and our other missing friend Niamh, they are hurt."

Sapphire paused, the fear that her two missing friends were hurt and badly so caused her eyes to fill with tears no matter how much she didn't want them to. Sapphire didn't dare look over at Diana or Iona as they came to stand next to her. If she did then the tears would fall for sure.

"Will you help us find them?" She finally asked, the fear she felt seemed to choke Sapphire as she struggled around the words. Fear that they might already be too late. Sapphire didn't expect an answer right away. But the one she got surprised her and the other girls.

Arthur and Lancelot shared a look and when Arthur nodded his head Lancelot spoke. He walked up to Sapphire and lifted her chin so she was no longer looking at her bare and freezing feet. She would have thought that the gesture was kind of sweet as she was forced to stare into his eyes, if it weren't for the fact that he was an infamous womanizer and she had just gotten into a verbal pissing match with the man in which she had insulted him repeatedly.

His eyes held her own bright sapphire blue ones.

"We will help you find your missing friends then we will return to the Fort where Dagonet and Vanora will help you get fixed up and get you some food. Then you will tell us who hurt you and your friends, where you are from and how you found your way here in the middle of a skirmish with Woads. You have nothing to fear from us."

With that Lancelot, having mistaken her fear for her friends' wellbeing as fear of him, smirked and turned to mount his horse along with the other knights.

Sapphire, Diana, and Iona looked around as all seven men mounted their horses and they stood, beginning to shake much more violently in the cold air, wondering who they were to ride with. Fortunately they did not have to wonder for long as Arthur noticed this predicament as well and asked three knights to volunteer to have the ladies ride with them. Immediately three hands were offered to Sapphire and her friends to help pull them up onto the horses.

Sapphire looked up at the hand she was about to clasp and was surprised to see that it was Lancelot who had ridden over to her and offered his hand. She hesitated for just a second too long. She thought Lancelot would have hated her a considerable amount given the first words that they had exchanged had not been overly pleasant.

'Because that isn't an understatement at all' she thought to herself as Lancelot sighed.

"I'm not going to bite." Then he smirked and added, "Not unless you want me too."

His eyes raked over Sapphire's now very dirty and slightly torn dress. Her hat and belt and shoes long since missing leaving her in only her once white dress that hugged her body and showed off her every curve. Sapphire shivered, but this time not from cold, but from how much she suddenly _liked _having the most infamous playboy in history stare at her in the way he was. She crossed her arms over her chest as she felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Sapphire was suddenly _very_ aware of just how much her body was reacting to his flirtations coupled with knowing just exactly how much Lancelot must be able to see…of her chest in particular.

He laughed at her sudden blush and extended his hand to help her up once again. Sapphire huffed indignantly and slapped his hand away before vaulting herself up onto the horse sidesaddle style in front of him. Sapphire kept her legs together and hoped he got the silent message of the action, thought really it was just so Sapphire's legs weren't as exposed to the cold.

Lancelot wrapped his arms around her to grab the reins and Sapphire tried not to sigh at the sudden warmth they provided. Lancelot must have noticed though as he pulled his cloak around to cover her legs and held her closer to him, though Sapphire suspected that it was just so he could have a better hold on and control over the reins.

Sapphire glanced over her shoulder and saw Iona as she was being picked up and placed on a horse by Dagonet and Diana was already sitting normally in front of the blonde knight who Sapphire guessed was Gawain.

Lancelot kicked his horse forward and started to follow Arthur and the others. Sapphire was thankful as she and Lancelot rode in silence for the first few minutes. Then it ended when Lancelot started asking questions, questions Sapphire wasn't sure how much she should or could answer in a way that he or any of the Knights would understand. Lancelot must have read Sapphire's mind though as he asked one of the questions she had been seriously hoping to avoid.

"Why are you and your companions dressed so…oddly? Does your…er…profession, require you to show so much of yourself so readily?"

Sapphire shook her head and fought hard to suppress a wild giggle thinking 'if he thinks this is scandalous he should see what I wear for gymnastics competitions…or to the beach.'

How in the world though was she supposed to explain to the most famous playboy of all history that she and her friends were _definitely not_ hookers or prostitutes and that this is how almost all women dressed for parties without it making her sound absolutely crazy?

Sapphire took a deep breath, better to just jump in headfirst.

"Well you see…where we come from…"


	10. Chapter 10

***Author's Note* Since it seems to be the source of some slight confusion. The character nicknames are as follows. **

**Sapphire - Fire (she has a temper)**

**Niamh - Tempest or Tempy (she also has a temper, and in case some were unsure how her name is pronounced its spelt 'Neev' or 'Niav' in English)**

**Tegan - Tegan (she doesn't have as nickname as of right now since her actual first name is Lila)**

**Diana - Di or D but usually Di **

**Iona - Pax (latin for Peace) **

**Hope this was helpful, would anyone like a post on character descriptions or traits? Leave a comment, let me know and I'll see about getting around to it. Thanks for reading! **

Chapter Ten. Tegan P.O.V.

_**About One Day Ago**_

Tegan struggled to the surface. The front and back of her chest were in agony and the icy water was clouded with her blood. Her back was on fire, even in the freezing water she could feel the burn from the lightning bolt blistering.

Tegan remembered everything.

Her brother, the branding iron, the pain he put her friends, sisters, through. She remembered blacking out and whispering to Liam as she faded.

"Father would be so proud of you, defeating five small girls with hired help instead of on your own like a man."

Tegan didn't know what happened after that or how long she had blacked out for but she was jolted back into consciousness by lightning bolt striking her back after a weird dream conversation with an old man who had blue tattoos all over his wizened face.

_***Dream***_

_Tegan eyes opened, or at least she thought they were open, but all she saw was blackness. A blackness so dark she couldn't see her hand an inch from her face. She tried to twist around and strain her eyes to see something, anything in the dark. _

_Suddenly everything exploded in light and there was a man standing before her. He was dressed oddly, in long robe-like clothing with a cord tied at his waist like a belt. He carried a staff and a small knife. He had a wild white-gray beard and tattoos everywhere. _

'_He looks a bit like my Grandpa but more wild' Tegan thought ruefully. _

_The old man started walking toward her speaking in a harsh guttural language that Tegan couldn't understand. He must have noticed this because when he got to her he pressed his palm over her heart and then pressed his other palm to her forehead. _

"_There" he said "Now the language of your ancestors is known to you." _

_Tegan stood there in shock. _

"_How can I understand you now? How is this possible? What did you do?" _

_She stood there and glared hard at the old man demanding he explain. He had the decency to look somewhat guilty or abashed. He spoke after a few seconds under her glare. _

"_I am Merlin. I summoned you and your friends with magic and that is how you can now understand my speech. The past needs you, Lady Lila, and your friends' help. Arthur and his knights have a great challenge ahead of them in the next few years. There are knights who will die without you and your friends as their true loves there to protect and save them." _

'_Oh. My. God. Is this even possible? No, no this is just a wacky hallucination/dream thing caused by the pain in my back. This has to be a dream, how could it be anything else?' _

_Tegan shook her head clear of her thoughts and decided to just go along with the dream and let it play out. _

_Suddenly a series of faces flashed before her eyes and "Merlin" continued. _

"_These men will die before their time unless they have something to return home too, unless they have their true love."_

_Merlin paused. Then continued after a few seconds, an odd expression crossing his features. _

"_I must admit, when I cast the spell to find the Knights' true loves, I did not expect to have to search so far into the future only to find all five of you in the same place in the same time." _

_Merlin stopped the pacing he had begun and met Tegan's eyes. She could not hold his intense gaze for very long as the absurdity of all started to become too much for her and instead she looked at her hands. Tegan still didn't believe that any of this was anything more than the imaginings of her unconscious and pain addled mind but she whispered to Merlin anyway. _

"_What do you want us to do?" _

_Merlin gave a small smile and raised his voice to be heard above the sudden wind that whipped Tegan's hair around her head. _

"_You will know when the time comes. We will meet again Lady Lila, but for now you might want to brace yourself. I apologize but this is going to hurt." _

_Tegan glowered at the use of her first name but she didn't get the chance to respond as pain exploded in her back. _

_***Reality**__*****_

Tegan was awake, bleeding and struggling through the water to reach the surface. Her head finally broke the surface of the river only to be pushed back under as something smacked into her. She felt panic start to rise in her chest thinking that someone was trying to force her to stay under.

Then she looked up.

It was Niamh! Tegan saw the knife still stuck in the back of her shoulder. At least the cold of the river had slowed the bleeding almost to a stop. At least that's the reason Tegan hoped for. She didn't want to think about the alternative the lack of blood might mean.

Tegan pushed herself back to the surface and caught Niamh's foot before she floated farther away down the river and began trying to get them to the edge of the river. Tegan struggled for what felt like hours but in reality she had no idea how much time had passed.

Eventually they made it to the edge and Tegan struggled to pull herself and Niamh out of the water and into the tall grass the surrounded them. She pulled the knife out of Niamh's shoulder after making sure that she was still breathing. Tegan pulled the knife out and the wound instantly began to bleed again. Her stomach heaved violently but Tegan refused to let herself be sick.

Niamh's shoulder was bleeding heavily now. "Shit" Tegan swore. She didn't have anything she could use as a bandage.

She looked down at her soaking wet clothes. Her skirt had been split higher up her thigh and the other side had been ripped up to similar spot on her other leg.

'Well it's better than nothing.' She thought as she used the bloody knife to cut off a long strip from the bottom of the skirt and tied it tightly around Niamh's shoulder.

After she made a makeshift bandage for Niamh the cold and exhaustion his Tegan full force and it was getting colder out. It was also getting darker all Tegan could think of was how nice it would be to just go to sleep. She dropped the knife as her muscles slowly began to shut down. She made it two more steps before collapsing in a heap next to Niamh on the ground.

**(Surprise! It's a two P.O.V chapter in one! \(^.^)/ ) -**

Narrator P.O.V

_***Present***_

Seven horses pounded through the trees following the river. Seven knights and three oddly dresses and shivering with cold maidens rode, following the groups' scout to where he found the violin case belonging to another maiden that they were searching for.

"This is where I found it. It was stuck between two rocks at the edge. If the women were in the river they could have traveled much farther down before being able to climb out. We should follow the river, it is our best chance at finding them. "

The leader nodded at the scout before turning to several others as he noticed the slightly blue tinged lips and feet of the three women they had already stumbled upon.

"Bors" Arthur, the leader, called over. "Ride ahead and tell Vanora that we may be in need of her assistance. These ladies need proper clothing and warmth. Will she mind?"

A rotund, gruff, loud man responded. "O' course Vanora won't mind, she should be able to come up with something for them to wear, big as she is now with Nine."

He laughed before riding off, ecstatic that he was able to go back early to his lover and bastard children.

The Fort was only about an hour's ride away. Far enough to still be dangerous but close enough that Bors would not be likely to have any problems.

"Lancelot, Gawain, Dagonet go with Bors, the women are freezing to death they need to get warm. Galahad, Tristan and I will continue to search and find the missing girls. We will meet you back at the Fort."

The three men carrying the women nodded and took off after their companion, racing through the trees behind him.

Arthur watched them go for a few moments, sending up a quick prayer for their safety. Then he turned to Tristan. "Lead the way." And Arthur and Galahad spurred their horses to follow the silent scout.


	11. Chapter 11

***Author's Note***** Hey-o loverly readers out there in cyber space. Just a quick update…from now on characters thoughts are going to be in **_**italics**_** instead of in the 'non-quotation quotation marks' (I seriously have no idea what these things are called when used in this way, are they still just call apostrophes?) I am officially back from vacation so I will (hopefully) be able to update a little more often. Thanks for reading so far! Keep on reading and reviewing! I love hearing what you have to say! Stay awesome people :) **

***Again I own nothing from KA just the characters and events I make up***

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Eleven. Tegan P.O.V.**

Everything was so cold.

Tegan couldn't feel anything, not even her slowed heartbeat. She didn't know how long she had lain there but she didn't have any desire to move or get up. _I'm going to die of cold if I don't move. _But try as she might Tegan just didn't have the energy or the strength. She couldn't even force her eyes open.

Tegan was conscious, that she knew as she heard the burble of the river and the pounding of horses' hooves rumbling over the ground and then slightly muffled shouts. She felt something land on her shoulder and let out an ear-piercing screech. The sound of running horses was redirected toward the shrieking cry of the bird on her back, toward her and Niamh.

Tegan was aware of all of this, yet she still could not make her arms or legs move or open her eyes. She couldn't form the words to plead for the help she and Niamh desperately needed.

Suddenly the hoof beats stopped and Tegan could feel the warm breath from the horse as it sniffed at her still form while causing the bird to take flight and leave deep scratches as it flew away from her and the much bigger creature. She heard someone land on the ground next to her then a shout.

"Arthur, Galahad over here, I've found them!" More hoof beats and then two more voices joined the first.

"Are they alive?" one asked then Tegan was rolled over and a hand was on her breast over her heart.

"Yes but barely, the cold has slowed their hearts, hers is barely beating."

"Same with this one Arthur, we need to get them back to the Fort and warmed and fast….Who would do something like this to a Lady? " A third voice said, a thick ring of genuine concern layering his voice. _Odd for a stranger to be so concerned _Tegan thought. Then the second voice spoke again.

"Agreed. Let's brush the snow off of them and get rid of their wet clothes." There was a ripping sound as though someone was tearing a piece of fabric in two. "Here, use this to wrap their feet and cover their heads it will help them to start retaining some heat."

Tegan felt herself being lifted slightly and moved by one of the disembodied voices, the one that hadn't spoken as much as the other two she noticed. She knew that she was going to be completely stark naked in front of this stranger and completely at his mercy in a mere matter of seconds if she wasn't already. Tegan felt a slight tinge of embarrassment and panic take over. But the man's hands were quick and adept. Never lingering anywhere on her longer than necessary, though everywhere they landed seemed to Tegan to be just that much warmer after his hand left.

She heard simultaneous sharp intakes of breath from the three men. _The must have discovered our wounds…or at least mine, Niamh's would have already been visible with the bandages…_she thought, though Tegan had not felt her shirt being removed.

The third voice that was laced with concern spoke "Someone's stabbed her Arthur and it looks like her flesh has been torn by an animal on her side…who could have done this Arthur?"

"I don't know Galahad but until we get her covered and back to the Fort and healed we won't have any chances at finding out." This voice said seeming to be in charge of the other two. The third voice, Galahad, Tegan heard him called, spoke again.

"Alright Arthur hand her up."

There was a sound of shifting next to Tegan and then again above her head. She however did not feel herself being moved. _This Galahad must have Niamh then_. The voice that hadn't spoken much suddenly sounded out, still quiet but it seemed to echo in Tegan's head as if it had been as loud as a cannon.

"Arthur" was all he said calling his leader over.

"Someone's branded her face" he ground out as the footsteps of "Arthur" drew near, then,

"That's not all Arthur, look at her back and chest."

"She must have made some dangerous enemies to have this marked on her. It is a wonder she is still alive. Are they still bleeding?"

The leader, Arthur asked. There was no response, Tegan assumed the man nodded before she felt herself being lifted and Arthur's voice much closer than it had been mere moments before.

"You got her?" Arthur asked, as Tegan was passed from one man to the next, and then pressed against a hard chest as strong arms encircled her.

"We will have to keep a close eye on this one Tristan, make sure that whoever marked her in such a violent manner doesn't come looking for more trouble."

Then they were moving and Tegan was rocked gently back into unconsciousness.

_***Some time later that day**__**********************************************************_

Tegan sighed in content and snuggled further into the warmth around her. Content to just stay lying there. She was fully ready to let sleep claim her once more and once again burrowed deeper into the blankets around her.

What Tegan did not expect however, was the deep groan that sounded behind her, or the arm that suddenly draped itself over her waist and hips pulling her closer to press her back against a broad, very muscled, very _naked_ and distinctly male chest.

In fact that wasn't the _only_ thing that Tegan felt pressing against her to tell her there was a naked man in bed with her.

She felt a blush rise to her cheeks as she realized that she too was naked. Suddenly embarrassed at the intimate way she was pressed up against this stranger, Tegan felt her body tense and go very still. A thought came unbidden to her head of her old boyfriend and how he used to complain all the time about how she wasn't good at spooning after sex.

_Oh. My. God. Did I really just have a one-night stand with a total stranger? _ Tegan thought as she turned her head ever so slightly to get a look at the man next to her.

He had shaggy hair with a few random braids and beads in it and small scruffy beard that was currently tickling the part of her shoulder that his chin was resting on. He had two dark blue, almost black, tattoos adorning his left cheek. _He's pretty handsome, not bad for a one night stand Tegan, _she thought to herself as she silently appraised his face, _if a one night was even what this was _she added, trying to remember the night before.

She remembered her cousin, the thugs, the pain, the old man and the lightning, more pain and the river, Niamh and then nothing. All that she could recall after the river was the cold, a bird and muffled words from voices she did not recognize.

Tegan tried to move herself out from under the man's arm but found that he held her far to tightly to himself for her to move his heavily muscled arm from about her waist without waking him.

Her efforts only succeeded in doing one thing and Tegan felt her cheeks flame once again as his manhood grew harder and he shifted to allow himself to slide up the side of her leg. Tegan ceased all movements immediately when she felt him pressed against her thigh and heard him groan again. He tightened his hold on her once more and whispered against her hair.

"My Lady your movements, however pleasurable I may find them, are making it increasingly hard for me to control myself around you. Despite my reputation I like to think that I am an honorable man. Now lie still, you are not yet back to your proper temperature. Unless… of course you wish me to speed up the process…"

And his hand began to travel over her hip and side while he pressed himself once more into her backside.

Tegan freaked out.

She launched herself out of the bed with a shriek, only to land clumsily on the floor as her legs refused to hold her weight just yet. Tegan instantly began to shiver as she bit back tears from the pain in her back and now tailbone that the fall had jarred.

The man was up and by her side in a second, seeming not to care that he was naked in front of her or that his arousal was now _very _largely visible. Tegan blushed madly even though she had looked for only a second, as she averted her gaze.

She remembered her own nakedness in that second as well and attempted to cover herself with her hands and crossed her legs over one another.

The man picked her up and placed her back on the bed and covered her again with the blankets all with his eyes closed she noticed. _Well that was unexpected,_ she thought, _and kind. _ Then a memory from the river floated back to her and some of the muffled words became clear. _This is likely the man who found me at the river, the one who would have undressed me…_

He had turned away from her and was pulling on an undergarment of some sort and then a pair of pants and shirt. Once dressed, he came back and sat on the edge of the bed to pull on boots.

"This is your room."

It was a statement not a question as Tegan began to put the pieces together. He nodded in confirmation.

"You were the one who found me by the river…you saved me." Again all she received was a nod. Then as he was lacing his boots, came his quiet voice.

"I am sorry to have startled you, and for my forward comments. Normally I am not so…flirtatious, that is Lancelot and Gawain's domain. It will not happen again."

He turned to look Tegan in the eyes then where she could see the truth and sincerity in his words. _I would have said yes. _She thought as yet another blush rose to her cheeks at the image of him in her mind came to the forefront of her thoughts. Then she mentally slapped herself. _What are you thinking Tegan?! You don't even know this man and yet just because he saved your skin, you saw him naked and were in bed with him, you're suddenly ready to jump his bones? Real smart Tegan, real smart. You know absolutely nothing about this man! _

Then he spoke again, just as quietly but Tegan could still see the truth in his eyes and hear it in his voice. His deep brown eyes never leaving her own hazel ones.

"This was the only way to safely raise your body temperature back to normal. You were near dead with cold….your heart was barely beating."

He finished in a whisper as he finally broke eye contact, not wanting her to see the depth of the concern that Tegan saw glimmering there. Concern for her. She continued to look at him for a few more moments as the information sunk in. Tegan thought she had seen the briefest glimmer of fear in his eyes but it was there and gone so fast that Tegan thought maybe she imagined it.

A few seconds later the man with the two tattoos on his cheeks stood and walked toward the door. As he reached for it he said

"Your…clothes are on the chair in the corner. When you are able, get dressed and head down to the last door at the end of the hall on your right. There will be food in the room if you are hungry."

Then he grabbed the door handle and was about to leave when an odd feeling came over Tegan. She did not want him to go just yet.

"Wait!" She cried. He paused and looked back at her. She swallowed to clear her throat before saying quietly from the bed "Thank you" He nodded again in acknowledgment of Tegan's thanks and turned to go again.

"Tegan." Tegan said to her back. The man turned again. "My name is Tegan."

"Tristan" He said. Then he was gone.

Tegan let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and started testing her legs so that she would not be stuck in Tristan's bed for much longer, no mater how safe and comfortable she felt there. No matter how much she secretly had like it there with him. She blushed faintly, nothing as bad as before, and it quickly disappeared as she felt a pang in cheek, chest and back as she finally got up. Getting dressed in the slightly river water stiff clothes was the hardest thing she had ever done with the constant pain from her injuries that bloomed with every little movement.

Tegan left Tristan's room after what felt like an eternity of slowly getting dressed and followed his directions to the door at the end of the hall on the right where she was greeted by nine pairs of eyes. Then was attacked by three bodies slamming into her and hugging her fiercely.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized it was Pax, Fire and Di. Someone was still missing though.

"Where's Niamh?" Tegan whispered. It was all she could manage before she collapsed in a chair as worry over came her.


End file.
